Beautiful
by peacegirl597
Summary: Aria doesn't show up from school the day of her and Ezra's anniversary, and he knows that there's something wrong. Her friends warn him, but he ditches last period to go and see her anyways. When he gets there, she's a mess of tears, confiding something big to him. How does he react to knowing that she's been through this? Angsty, AriaxEzra pairing


_**So… I've written A TON of twilight fanfiction… but this is my first PLL fic and I'm really excited to write it, so tell me what you think! It will probably be a oneshot but possibly a twoshot and maybe even more depending on what you guys want… So yeah!**_

_**Ezra**_

Today was a pretty normal day. Ezra woke up at 8:25 and arrived at work nine, as usual. His first class was at 9:55 and he'd finished all of his grading last night, so he had almost an hour to kill. He debated calling Aria, but realized she was either getting ready for school and couldn't be bothered or on her way to school, where being on the phone while driving could get her in an accident. He knew it was a pretty slim chance that a phone call could lead her to run herself off the road, and he'd been on the phone while driving millions of times, but he didn't even want to risk it. Aria was too important to risk.

So he just kind of sat there at his desk, enjoying the peace and quiet that would soon be disturbed when the highschoolers entered the room in fifty minutes. Though the quiet was peaceful, Ezra became bored fast. He had been all alone the night before, too, since Aria insisted over the phone that her family dinner was much too important. He told her he understood, but was confused all the same. Aria always blew off family dinners to come over. Maybe this one had been a family intervention or something… She had mentioned family issues once or twice.

But that didn't really matter now. At least he would get to see her today, although there would be several other students in the room. He grumbled to himself. Having her in his class could be very frustrating. When all he talked about were romance novels and she sat there across the room, staring up at him with her big brown eyes, all he wanted to do was run up to her desk and give her a kiss. But that might cause some suspicions…

The bell finally rang, and the first class piled in through the doors. It was uneventful, and they mostly did grammar and spelling checks on the writing assignment that was due on Monday. Most of them worked reasonably hard, considering it was Friday and everybody wanted to spend the weekend partying or watching T.V. or, well, anything besides doing homework. He went by his normal routine with the rough drafts each student brought him: read, mark, repeat, hand back. It went on like that for the eighty minute period, before the second class came in and did the same. Ezra got a half-hour break after the second class, and used it to grade the pop quizzes he gave to both classes. He wasn't planning on giving it to the third class however. His excuse was because they had slightly different curriculum and it was ahead of the chapter they were at. The real reason, though, was because Aria was in that class and she'd been going through a lot of unneeded stress and he was afraid a pop quiz would push her over the edge. Whenever he was going to make a pop quiz, he normally gave Aria the heads-up a week or so before. He knew that it wasn't fair, and that it was showing favoritism, but Aria really _was_ his favorite student. Ever. I mean, he wouldn't kiss Noel Kahn… ew. As the thought of Noel kissing him passed his mind, he cringed and went back to grading papers.

Finally, after a very long thirty minutes, Ezra watched as his third class slowly streamed in from their last lesson. He was still grading papers when the kids flowed in.

"Okay, class." He announced, looking up from his papers, expecting a pair or hazel-brown eyes to be looking up at him too. Only, today, they weren't there. "Um, let's… do um, attendance." He stammered, taken aback slightly from her absence. Where was she? More family problems? No, he saw her mom this morning, she was a _teacher_ here!

All he wanted to do was interrogate her friends, conveniently sitting just a row away from him, but that would probably raise suspicion, too. So, he had to act normal and try to pretend that Aria being out was the same as Noel being out… which he was too… Ezra shuddered. Aria wasn't with him, was she?

"Terry Baker?" He started attendance.

"Here."

"Samantha Barry?"

"Here."

It went on like that for 17 names before Aria's came.

"Aria Montgomery?" He asked, already knowing the answer.

"Absent." Her friend Spencer answered. He had to repress a sigh.

"Does anybody know where Miss Montgomery is?" He asked, as he did for every absent student. He was suddenly glad that he always asked this when somebody was missing from class, because it gave him a reason to ask the question that had been itching inside of him.

Spencer seemed to avert her eyes at the question. He looked at Hanna, who suddenly found the worksheet on her desk fascinating. He looked at Emily hopefully but she, too, was avoiding eye contact. Something was up. He would talk to them later… But now he had to start the lesson. It was eighty minutes of pure torture. The minutes dragged on and on. He graded more papers, and decided to throw in the pop quiz anyways. He'd call Aria to tell what she would need to know when she got back. If she got back. But of course she'd come back, he was blowing this way out of proportion. Just because she missed a day of school didn't mean she was breaking up with him. So why was he making a big deal about this? Because the last time she skipped his class, was after he really _did_ break up with her. For the first time, that is, right after he found out he was her teacher. He had told her it just wouldn't work, but since they had gotten back together, and made it through all of the shit they had, they were working well. At least he thought so.

When the bell rang for lunch, the class quickly jumped up from their seats and made their way eagerly to the lunchroom. The girls had almost made it out the door, behind the crowd when He stopped them.

"Freeze."

They stopped in their tracks.

"Girls, may I talk to you for a second?" he asked politely.

"Yes, Mr. Fitz?" Spencer asked innocently, once the rest of the class was gone.

"Oh, cut the crap, Spencer. You all know that once the door is closed, I'm not your teacher anymore. I'm just your best friend's boyfriend."

"Fine… What's up _Ezra?_" Hannah asked a bit harshly.

"Where's Aria?" he snapped back. Yeah, definitely not a teacher-student tone of voice that they used.

"How should I know?" Hannah asked angrily. Ezra laughed.

"Hannah, I said not to treat me like a teacher, but that doesn't mean to treat me like your worst enemy!"

"Sorry…" She blushed.

"Don't let it bug you, She's just in a bad mood. She treats all her friends like that…"

"Oh, so I'm your friend am I?" He asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Yeah, I mean, sorta…."

"I was kidding, Hannah. Anyways, and I'm being serious this time, where is my girlfriend?"

"We aren't supposed to tell you." Emily said quickly. She had remained silent for most of the conversation

"Jeez! Chill, Em. Why so tense?" Hannah asked.

"I'm not tense!" She hissed rather… well, tensely.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yes. Can I go now?" Again, her speech was sped, and she averted her eyes.

"Emily, I don't think you're very comfortable with me and Aria, are you?"

"I just don't want to see her hurt. If this doesn't work out and the police get involved…"

"Emily," he sighed, "We're happy. I won't hurt her. If I do, I will hand you the knife and show you where to stab it personally. Now for god's sake, will someone tell me where my girlfriend is?"

They all seemed to look down, once again avoiding any sort of eye contact. This conversation was not going anywhere. He sighed in frustration. "Please?"

"She really told us not to tell you. Sisters before Misters, remember?"

He huffed irritated. They shifted uncomfortably, sensing his obvious distress. It gave Emily a rare set of butterflies to see him react so emotionally just because his girlfriend skipped a day of school. She was cracking, and was very tempted to tell him…

"Please? Is she avoiding me? Did I do something wrong? If I did just tell her I'm sorry, okay? I didn't mean to upset her. She's been acting weird and if it's my fault-"

"You didn't do anything wrong!" Emily shouted, the others glaring at her, as if to say _don't do it! If you tell him Aria will kill you… _"She went home. Okay? She left after last period , on our way to class. She's not mad at you… She just… Just go home, okay? Just go home."

"Why? I mean…"

"You don't have any classes, Fitz! Just go!" Hanna urged. Ezra sighed. Was he missing something?

"Wait… Fitzy, do you even know what today is?" Spencer asked, somewhat hurt.

Ezra smiled, of course he knew what today was. It was something very special. It was their anniversary. And even though he wanted to shout; Of course I do, Spencer, I'm not stupid! He had to play dumb. Because if anyone knew what he was planning, Aria would find out. And Aria couldn't find out. So, he continued walking, no matter how suspicious it made them.

As he neared her house, his worries started popping up again. The 'what if's?' and 'Why not's?', bugging in his brain.

_What if she breaks up with me?_

_What if there's something wrong?_

_Why didn't she tell me she wasn't going into school? _

_Why couldn't her friends tell me?_

It made his car speed up just a bit faster than normal. Pulling into her driveway, he triple checked to make sure that no parents were around. Running into Byron might not go over so well in a case like this. She didn't bother to come and see him on their _anniversary _of all days. And since it was their anniversary, he didn't need her dad to kill the already slightly dying mood.

He knocked on her door several times and rang the doorbell, but when no one answered, he just went in.

"Aria?" He called out. No answer. "You home?"

He looked around the living room, kitchen, and entire first floor before making his way upstairs. He called to her some more, but no one answered yet again. He knocked on the door he was almost certain was hers.

"Aria?" tried again in a soft voice.

"Go away," She mumbled.

"Not likely, hon. Can I come in?" He smiled.

"Nope."

"I'm coming in."

"No!" She complained, "Please, go away!" There was a tone of desperation in her voice that he hadn't heard before. He was immediately serious.

"What's wrong, Aria?" He asked, creaking open the door slightly to peek in.

When he saw, the door was instantly flew open and he rushed in. There was his girlfriend, balled up in her bed, make-up running down her face, hair tasseled… Yet still the most beautifully heartbreaking girl he'd ever seen. He rushed over to the bed, cradling her in his arms.

"Shhh… don't cry, it's okay. C'mon. Tell me what's wrong," he practically begged. There was nothing that he hated more than seeing her upset.

"You-you didn't forget, did you?" Her voice caught.

"Is that what this is about? Of course I didn't forget! It's our anniversary, silly."

"N-no. Not that. Did you forget? The thing I asked you to give to my mom?"

Shit. How could he have forgotten? He was supposed to give her mom an envelope. She'd asked him not te read it, so he didn't think any importance in it, but now he was second-guessing.

"You dropped it." She whispered, pulling the envelope out, "And my dad found it."

She was starting to contain her tears, but a tone of disgust filled her voice.

"He wasn't supposed to read it. I-I didn't want him to."

"Aria… What's in the envelope?" He asked hesitantly. She wordlessly handed it over.

_Mom, _

_I'm having Mr. Fitz give this to you because I can't give it to you at home, and I don't think I'd be able to face you at school without having a breakdown about it. Basically, I'm not very comfortable with the living arrangements. Mike isn't either. He won't admit it, but even though you and dad have gotten somewhat back together, your still-constant arguments have been getting to the both of us. We overheard him say last night that if it weren't for his 'fucking mistakes of children' that he would have left you a long time ago. He said he'd rather never met you so he wouldn't have to deal with us. I don't know if you realized we were even home… but we aren't happy about how he talked about us. I don't want that. It's not fair to anyone, especially you. I did a lot and hid a lot to keep the two of you together, but I'm starting to think that maybe I shouldn't have because it's just making everyone upset further. You keep saying that you fixed your problems with each other, but they're obviously still there. It's verbal abuse towards me and I'm just not okay with living with him right now, a room over, having to hear him insult me, and my brother as well as you._

_I can't tell you all of this at home, because dad might overhear or see the letter or something. I'm sorry I did it this way, and don't worry. won't read this. It's too personal, and I asked him not to. I think he'll honor that. I'm sorry I had to explain this like this, but I can't think of any other way to do it. _

_ I love you,_

_ Aria. _

Ezra started at the letter in shock. This was what he was supposed to give to her mom. He was supposed to give Ella a note from his girlfriend, saying that she wasn;t comfortable in a house with her father, that she felt like she was being verbally abused. And she never once confided in him.

"Aria," he sighed.

"You dropped it on your way out last time," She whispered, "You came over yesterday while they were out, remember? The letter must have fallen out of your bag or something…"

"I know that you're upset about your dad finding this, but I know you. You wouldn't skip school because of that. You wouldn't have your friends lie to me over family problems that you already knew existed…" he thought out loud.

"You're right," Her face scrunched up as if she were going to cry again, as she lifted her arms up to show him the already blackening, purple hand-shaped blotches covering her body. He couldn't believe what he saw.

Slowly, Ezra rolled up the whole of his girlfriend's sleeves, only to uncover several more trails of purple and blue, in the early stages of bruising. He gritted his teeth, and pulled her entire shirt over his head. The same fist-sized markings covered her torso, and she flinched away from him.

"Did he… did Byron _do _this to you?" He demanded softly, hissing out the words in a hushed yet angry tone.

"He confronted me," She cried softly, "He said '_I'll show you what abuse is'._"

Ezra couldn't believe it. He couldn't believe the mistake he had made. This was all his fault. If he'd just given Ella that goddamn letter the second he got it…

"Don't feel guilty," her voice cracked out from where her head was nestled into his chest. She looked up at him, "This isn't your fault. You know that."

"If I'd just given your mom the letter…"

"Then maybe he still would've found out."

"Or maybe you'd be happily living somewhere else away from that bastard."

"Or maybe he would've seen that you'd delivered the letter and beaten the crap out of you."

"I'd take a beating for you any day." He promised.

"I know." She smiled, wiping the eyeliner from underneath her eyes.

"Happy anniversary," he whispered.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Ezra was going to fix this if it was the last thing he did. He would take it as far as he needed. It could be played off in so many different ways, so many ways he could've found out about it without hinting to a relationship. And he would use them. He could say that she'd confided in him, or that he'd read the letter. It was a good enough story for anybody, even if he had to take it to court. He would fight for her and protect her by any means necessary, and he would go down fighting if he had to.

She was the most important thing to him, his main priority. And even though, there they sat, a crumpled mess on her bed, stuck in such a God awful scenario on their one year anniversary… He was happy just to be near her. And even though he wanted to hurt anyone who had hurt her, he would take the highroad; he wouldn't risk the same fate as them by throwing a punch in their direction… because she needed him to be there to protect her, something he couldn't do from behind bars or being punished. And even though her makeup was smearing into his shirt, her bruised body shirtless and frail against his… She was the most beautiful person he had ever seen.


End file.
